All Photos By Gail

In the early 1970s, the future was shiny, sleek, and full of promise. Few designers captured that hopeful, otherworldly energy quite like Serge Mansau with his Space Age Low Table (1973) — a sculptural masterpiece in steel and nickel that feels equal parts furniture, spacecraft, and dreamscape.

Best known for his fantastical perfume bottle designs for brands like Dior, Givenchy, and Lancôme, Mansau was a sculptor and industrial artist whose imagination often orbited well beyond the decorative. The Space Age Low Table shows him at his most experimental — merging the glamour of high design with the visual language of science fiction.

At first glance, the table’s reflective stainless steel and nickel-plated surfaces look like they’ve been teleported straight from a 1970s space lounge. Its low, wide proportions (just over 15 inches high and nearly 67 inches across) stretch out like a metallic horizon line, anchoring a room while also bending light, color, and shadow across its mirrored planes. As you move around it, the surroundings — and even you — become part of the design. The future, Mansau suggests, isn’t just out there; it’s all around us.

The table features three disc-like tabletops — each mounted on one of the polished, orb-shaped bases — that seem to hover just above the floor. Ingeniously, the discs can be adjusted to swing away from the table’s central core — transforming into individual satellite surfaces for drinks, books, or conversation. It’s an elegant bit of engineering that turns the table into an interactive constellation, inviting movement and sociability in true Space Age style.

When Mansau created this piece in 1973, the world was standing at the edge of technological wonder and existential doubt. The Moon landing was still fresh in memory, yet the promise of the Space Age had begun to feel complicated. Furniture designers responded by bringing the cosmic indoors — creating curvy, reflective, low-slung forms that invited relaxation and escape. Mansau’s table channels that tension perfectly: its cold industrial finish is offset by a lounge-friendly shape that practically hums with sensuality.

What’s remarkable is how current it still feels. Half a century later, Mansau’s Space Age Low Table remains a bold statement on the boundary between art and utility. It’s both an object and an experience — a conversation between material and light, between human and machine.

In an era when design often leans nostalgic, Mansau’s work reminds us that futurism was once about faith — faith in beauty, progress, and the unknown. The Space Age Low Table doesn’t just look forward; it still gets there first.

Photographed at Demisch Danant Furniture Gallery in NYC.